Bike Review: TCR Advanced SL

So, I've spent the last few months on Giant's new TCR Advanced SL. It's the latest incarnation of Giants top end road bike, the frame that Denis Menchov rode to victory in the 2009 Giro d'italia. Not too shabby.

I've logged about 2000 miles on it so far. I am pretty impressed. The frame is simply one of the most comfortable and responsive one's I've ever had the chance to ride. Giant set out to create one of the best "all around" race bikes out there, and I think they have succeeded. They've tried to create a bike that balances light weight, stiffness, and comfort.

One of the ways in which they manage to do this is to use their top end T-800 carbon (read Trek's OCLV2 Red, Felt's UHC-Nano, Scott's HMX Net, blah, blah, blah...)... boring stuff really. The main way they do this is by controlling the manufacturing process; from designing their own frames, to weaving their own carbon sheets, to building their own resins, to molding their own frames to building their own bikes. But, every bike company does this right? Wrong. Most farm it out to, well... Giant. This includes several European brands as well as some marquis US lines. They know how to build bikes.

As for the ride, the bike feels very stable; descending the twisting roads of Lyons Valley the over sized headtube and rectangular downtube kept the bike planted while carving the turns.

When the road turns up the bike is no slouch either, it takes whatever power you can muster and turns it into forward momentum. Grinding up Palomar in your 39 x 27 almost becomes a pleasure.

I rode it with my Cosmic SL's and even though these are not the smoothest of wheelsets, the bike was comfortable even on 6 or 7 hour training rides. On the last few Wednesday rides we've taken to "the dirt" and the bike was remarkably stable; swallowing rock, gravel, and dirt as if it was on good ole tarmac.

I was also able to test out the new Shimano Ultegra 6700 groupo. This was very impressive as well. The new hoods and brake/shift levers are much more comfortable than last year's. A wider, flatter mech body deserve much of the credit. The new shape of the brake lever is much appreciated as well. The front derailleur shifting is smoother, due to a stiffer cage and the new hollow chainrings. The shifting is also improved through use of heavier springs and a more "positive" action. A hearty "Ka-Chunk" greets each downshift... a nod to Campy and SRAM. Performance is on par with most aspects of the new SRAM groupos and in some instances exceeds them. But at this level, it seems that any conversation of the benefits of Shimano over SRAM over Campy de-volves into a beer fueled Chevy vs. Ford argument - at the end of the day everyone makes a great groupo.

All in all it my favorite bike so far. Hmm, now how am I going to scrape enough green together to pick one up of my own?